Don’t say he didn’t warn you. Lonegan is promising to reinforce the rejectionist wing of the Republican Party.

He considers himself a libertarian and believes it was a catastrophic mistake to establish the Social Security and Medicare programs. Elderly people in need should get their health care through charity, he says, just like in the good old days of his imagination.

“We have a moral obligation to our seniors to maintain the system they expected,” he says. “But no, I would not have voted for Medicare.”

He wants to eliminate the minimum wage. If business owners can find someone desperate enough to work for $1 an hour, that’s between them.

“I believe in the liberty of contract,” Lonegan says.

He would cut business taxes, and scrap the progressive code in favor of a flat tax that favors the rich.

The growing income gap concerns him, he says, but the government should stay out of it and let the “magic” of the market solve the problem.

“I happen to believe that freeing up the market eliminates injustice,” he says.
He would kill the Department of Education. And if a state like Mississippi dismantles its public schools, then so be it. “That’s up to the people of Mississippi.”

Lonegan vows he will never vote to increase the debt ceiling. Economists say that would cause interest rates to spike and send the economy spiraling back into recession. But Lonegan says he would pay creditors by cutting other programs.

Reality check: The interest payments on the federal debt amount to about $400 billion a year. And Lonegan has no clue where to find that kind of savings in the federal budget.
“Look, when I became mayor and got my hands on that budget, we started pulling it apart piece by piece,” he says. “That’s what you do.”

For the record, he was mayor of Bogota, a borough of 8,000 souls with an annual budget of $9 million. Just saying.

Lonegan favors decriminalization of marijuana, and says mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders has been a disaster.

On gay marriage, he’s incoherent. “I’m very concerned about this as an assault on religious freedom,” he says.

But no one is suggesting that religious organizations must bless gay marriages. This is about equal treatment by government. So does Lonegan believe Social Security should discriminate against gay couples?

“This is where it starts to get a little gray,” he says.

Back in Bogota, Lonegan once raised a stink over a McDonald’s billboard that advertised in Spanish. He’s backpedaling on that now, and says he favors a path to citizenship for people in this country illegally who can find an employer to sponsor them.

The billboard flap was overblown, he says. “I did not force them,” he says. “I made a simple request.”

Give him this much: It’s clear what you can expect from him in the Senate — another Ted Cruz.

Hard to imagine New Jersey wanting that. This is a state that hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972.

My guess is that Lonegan knows he’s likely to lose, and won’t be heartbroken if it happens. He is a missionary, not a politician. His goal is to have a pure soul, to be faithful to his creed, to be like Cruz.

And if that means the federal government grinds to a halt, then so be it. Lonegan is blind, and he’s not asking for help. So if you have problems, don’t expect him to help you.
“I’m sorry if you have cancer, but that’s your problem, not mine,” he says. “I’m blind. That’s my problem, not yours.”

It’s a tough creed. And if you think he’s going to compromise on that, think again. He’d much rather go down fighting, even for a lost cause.